#44: Leviathan Wakes
We will return to our regularly scheduled programming next week
This week I’m throwing a little sci-fi into the mix with book 1 of an epic outer space adventure. While I love me some Star Wars and Star Trek, a book that uses a slightly more grounded approach and takes greater effort to imagine the ramifications of a colonized solar system has been refreshing.
The plan for next week is to have an interview-style review between myself and a couple of friends about Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys. Should be fun!
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Published 2011 | 561 pages
Tags: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure, Mystery
What’s it about?
Having finished the 5th and (for now) final book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series last year and with no book 6 anywhere near the horizon, I knew I would need an ambitious multi-book series to tide me over. I considered jumping into the Wheel of Time series or Stormlight Archive but eventually landed on the 8 (soon to be 9) book Expanse series. Leviathan Wakes is book 1 and it did not disappoint.
With fusion engines invented, high speed interplanetary travel is a reality and humanity has now colonized the solar system. I love how the authors (James S.A. Corey is a pen name for two writers) took the idea of habitating planets and asteroids and dreamed up infrastructure, political repercussions, and other fun ideas to flesh out the world…er, worlds. These guys have graduated from world building to worlds building.
Yet within this vast system of billions of people, the authors managed to create characters that I cared about and enjoyed hanging out with.
XO James Holden and his crew of ice haulers stumble on a dangerous secret and bad luck starts following them wherever they go. Detective Miller is washed up and past his prime, but he still can’t let a good mystery go by without poking it. As the two sides independently work out who or what is behind it all, interplanetary war looms.
How did it impact me?
This was good and I mean good science fiction. The writing conveys the insanity of inhabiting the uninhabitable vacuum of space and how much thinner the already thin line between life and death is out there. Yet notwithstanding the obvious risks, once humans could do something, it made no sense not to. The writers took this aspect of human nature to push beyond limits and scaled it up in a believable way.
I found it highly entertaining and the perfect marriage between my love of a good story and my fascination with outer space. Mere hours ago, the brilliant folks at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory landed the Perseverance rover on Mars. The technology to accomplish that boggles my mind. The purpose of the mission? Look for signs of life and pave the way for humans to visit the red planet. Exciting things are happening not just in fiction, but in real life!
What would I compare it to?
In some ways this reminded me of Andy Weir’s Artemis, which took place on a future-day moon colony. I wasn’t crazy about the characters or story in that one and mostly read it for the realistic imagining of what a moon colony could look like (and because The Martian was awesome). Leviathan Wakes is in another league.
Who would I recommend this to?
Sci-fi nerds will dig it and even fantasy lovers will find things to enjoy. There are intriguing inter-planetary politics that I expect to ramp up in the next books.
That’s all for me this week. I’m excited to hear about the planets of books you are colonizing.
Kyle